The possibility of Italy’s Leonardo-Finmeccanica taking full control of regional aircraft maker ATR was rekindled this week, following comments by the group’s chief executive Mauro Moretti. In an interview published on June 21, Moretti reportedly told the Financial Times that he wants to achieve complete ownership of France-based ATR, which Leonardo-Finmeccanica jointly owns with Airbus.
Airbus has not publicly signaled any intention to relinquish its 50 percent holding in ATR. However, the European aerospace and defense group has acknowledged that is under financial pressure from a series of program setbacks. In March, it agreed to sell a majority stake in Airbus Defence & Space’s Electronics and Border Security (EBS) subsidiary to U.S. private equity group KKR. This deal is subject to regulatory approval and is set to be concluded in the first quarter of 2017.
However, Moretti’s comments suggested that he doesn’t necessarily intend to pay cash to get control of ATR—a goal that Leonardo-Finmeccanica has harbored for some time. He implied that the state-backed company would look to trade other assets with Airbus, such as perhaps its 25 percent holding in missile manufacturer MBDA.
Neither Airbus nor ATR has made any response to Moretti’s comments. In May, ATR chief executive Patrick de Castelbajac stressed the benefits the company derives from being able to tap the enormous engineering resources of the Airbus group. “When Airbus invests billions into a system, we can benefit from part of this without investing what we would normally invest if we were a third party,” he told AIN.